Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Serbia and their partners

Benefits of Attendance

This seminar aims at significantly improving the ability of the participants to meet the challenges of living and working abroad. The objective is to enable them to identify the stumbling blocks that lie ahead and to be able to adapt and integrate in Serbia.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Serbian context and culture
• Analyse situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating more effectively
• Reduce and manage the symptoms of culture shock
• Understand Serbian mindset, work practices, decision-making processes and negotiating styles
• Strike the right balance between personal et professional lives

Training Approach

• A cross-cultural approach of International Mobility
• Country specific trainers
• Personalized and familiy focused action plan
• Access to the Nomad’ Network, an exclusive online tool for Akteos’ clients and experts:  find resources, exchange experiences, knowledge and insights

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Successful personnal integration in Serbia

1. Cross-cultural awareness : the key to a successful expatriation

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• Culture shock and the integration process
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Serbian culture

• From Greater Serbia to Yugoslavia to “Little Serbia”
• A multiethnic society
• The painful road leading to the creation of the modern state of Serbia
• Serbia’s late and fragile transition to democracy
• A delicate but promising economic situation
• The challenges of European integration

3. Serbian values and behaviour patterns

• The importance of nationalism, the orthodox religion
• Slava and family values, serbian women: taking control of their own destiny
• "Balkan time": a flexible view of time
• Pride, sensitivity, humour
• Direct and expressive communication
• Great care and attention paid to appearances
• A respect for qualifications and status, performance is highly valued

4. Practical day-to-day information

• Focus on the host town or city
• Transport, administration, housing, security, hygiene and healthcare
• Social life, leisure activities
• Schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Serbia

1. The Serbian corporate world in

• A late transition to a market economy: the Soviet hangover
• The importance of the public sector, the privatisation process
• Foreign investments, a sense of effort and performance
• The market, employment, salaries, corruption
• A clear hierarchy but collective decision-making

2. Effective communication with the  Serbs

• First impressions: the first meeting is a decisive moment
• An expressive use of body language
• Information flows.  Networking
• The working language: the role of the interpreter

3. Working with Serbian teams

• Effective management: leadership and availability
• Acting coherently: being firm, clear and frank
• Creating a friendly working environment, dealing with touchy and sensitive people
• Making the most personal ambitions: recognition and promotion

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Serbs

• Building trust and confidence: discipline and formality
• Identifying decision-makers, successful networking
• Time and deadline management
• Written contracts, their interpretation and implications

5. Final handy tips

• Caution, patience and humility
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code
• Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion